Invasion of the Neptune Men

Invasion of the Neptune Men
File:Invasion of the Neptune Men 1961.jpg Theatrical poster for Invasion of the Neptune Men (1961)
Directed by	Koji Ota
Written by	Shin Morita
Produced by	Hiroshi Okawa
Starring	Sonny Chiba Kappei Matsumoto Shinjiro Ebara Mitsue Komiya Ryuko Minakami
Cinematography	Shizuka Fujii
Edited by	Ryohei Fujii
Music by	Michiaki Watanabe
Distributed by	Toei Co. Ltd.; Walter Manley Enterprises Inc. (US TV release)
Release date	1961 (Japan)
Running time	82 min., 74 min.
Languages	Japanese English

Invasion of the Neptune Men (宇宙快速船, Uchū Kaisokusen, Space Hypership) is a tokusatsu SF/superhero film produced by Toei Company Ltd. (as "New Toei") in 1961. The movie starred then 22-year old Sonny Chiba as the intergalactic superhero Iron-Sharp. (When listed in the credits in the Japanese version, "Iron Sharp" was played by "?", a gimmick often used in many similar Japanese superhero shows at the time) As of 2008, this is the only appearance of Iron-Sharp (who's dressed in silver tights, helmet, cape, carries a ray gun and rides a car-like rocketship), who is called "Space Chief" in the US version. In either case, this film is similar to many a show in the Toei Superhero genre from the same period, like Planet Prince (Toei's movie version).

Plot

Astronomer Shinichi Tachibana, has a secret identity as superhero "Iron-Sharp" (Space Chief in the English) and has many children as friends. When they are attacked by a group of metallic aliens ("Neptune Men" in English), Iron-Sharp drives the aliens away. Tachibana is also resourceful, as he helps develop an electric barrier to block the aliens from coming to the Earth. After several losses by the aliens, they announce that they will invade the Earth, throwing the world into a state of panic. As they invade the aliens destroy entire cities with their mothership and smaller fighters. Iron-Sharp destroys multiple enemy ships and Japan fires a nuclear missile at the mothership, destroying it.

US release

The US version was titled Invasion of the Neptune Men and went directly to TV after being cropped to fullscreen from its 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This version also deleted some of the opening, that explained the naming of Iron Sharp and a scene where both American and Soviet ambassadors suspect each other's countries of causing the nuclear explosion.

The film was later featured on the movie-mocking show Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1997, where it was subjected to some unusually brutal jokes (such as calling Space Chief "Space Dink", "Space Feeb", "Space Loser", and "Ineffectual Chicken-Headed Bachelor", among other things ["Hey, you know, Space Chief should actually consider going up into space sometime." "Yeah, he's more like Lower-Atmosphere Chief." "Barely-Off-The-Stupid-Ground Chief."]. The ship the Neptunians flew around in received little better treatment, first described in the riffing as "a pre-fab Lutheran Church," then remarked as possibly running on coal, or, as Crow quipped, "So, they glued wings to a fuel filter.", and finally comparing it in appearance to Thomas the Tank Engine). As MST3K's central concept revolves around attempts to torture Mike and his robots into insanity with bad movies, Invasion of the Neptune Men is significant by genuine effectiveness. The crew is tearful and borderline suicidal by the third host segment, only being saved by a surprise visit from the Phantom Dictator/Chicken Man of Krankor from Prince of Space. Host Mike and robot Crow leave the theater for a few moments, and only came back when madwoman Pearl Forrester shuts off the oxygen supply to the rest of the satellite. They were particularly disgruntled by the film's overly long climax which consisted of repetitive and vague footage of space ships flying around and shooting at each other, pointing out the number of ships destroyed by "Space Chief" do not seem to reduce the amount of ships he keeps fighting in subsequent scenes.

The film was also featured on the nationally syndicated horror host show Cinema Insomnia.

A multi-story picture of Adolf Hitler with some Japanese writing (along with Mein Kampf, mistransliterated as Mine Kampf) is clearly visible on the side of one building before it is destroyed. MST3K passes by with ordinary riffing ("They took out the Hitler Building! Where is everyone going to see Hitler memorabilia?" and "What's next? The Mussolini Mall? Followed by the Pinochet Petting Zoo").

No such leniency was given to the use of actual World War II bombing footage for some of the "destruction of Tokyo" scenes. The writers for MST3K found its incorporation into a kids' movie to be abhorrent. The footage was not broadcast in the MST3K version, but caused some of the riffing, such as Servo's breakdown, to be especially harsh.

Production

The alien mothership prop was actually 6 feet (1.8 m) long. It was designed by veteran Toru Narita, best known for his design work on Ultra Q, Ultraman, Ultra Seven and War of the Gargantuas. At the same period, he was an art director for the Toei superhero series National Kid.

Stock footage from the film was used in the music video for Rage Against the Machine's "Testify."

Cast

• Shinichi Tachibana/Iron Sharp - Sonny Chiba
• Dr. Tanigawa - Kappei Matsumoto
• Yoko Tanigawa - Ryuko Minakami
• Kenichi Tanigawa - Teppei Yamamoto
• Tatsuo Ito - Masami Nakamura
• Saburo Hayashi - Nobuyuki Ezawa
• Tadashi Ine - Masao Kawakami
• Yanagita, Bachelor of Science - Shinjiro Ebara
• Tadao Murase - Kogo Ozono
• Hajime Chiba - Kimio Yamamuro
• Dr. Tamiya - Junji Masuda
• Dr. Yoshimoto - Hidemichi Ishikawa
• Saito, Bachelor of Science - Mitsue Komiya
• Yukichi Yamagata - Seiichiro Kameishi
• Eiji Shindo - Shiro Okamoto
• Defense Chief Takita - Takashi Kanda
• Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitomi - Gozo Soma
• Dr. Enomoto - Seiho Shirakawa
• Staff Chief Miyake - Ken Sudo
• Garrison Chief Mikami - Koji Sahara
• Major Murai - Tadashi Minamikawa
• Guard - Kenji Kawai
• Reporter #1 - Kosaku Okono
• Reporter #2 - Yuji Kitamine
• Reporter #3 - Shiro Oki
• Reporter #4 - Akira Moriya
• Railway worker #1 - Satoshi Tamai
• Railway worker #2 - Masuzumi Okabe
• Lieutenant General Inukai - Akikane Sawa
• Colonel Fujimoto - Rinichi Yamamoto
• Washington Broadcast Station Chief - Harold Conway
• Karimasu - Koji Sekiyama
• Alien #1 - Kenji Todoroki
• Alien #2 - Yoshiko Matsuoka
• Alien #3 - Akiyoshi Takenaga
• Alien #4 - Koji Sawada
• Alien #5 - Keitaro Suzuki
• Alien #6 - Junji Watanabe
• Alien #7 - Tsuneo Yamanaka
• Announcer - Kenji Miyako
• Dr. Yabe - Akira Katayama

External links

• "宇宙快速船 (Uchû Kaisokusen)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
• Invasion of the Neptune Men at IMDb
• Invasion of the Neptune Men at AllMovie
• Invasion of the Neptune Men at Livestream
• Invasion of the Neptune Men at YouTube